Cicada
by ShiningMoon
Summary: A young Goten reflects on his life so far - as a fighter, a friend, a brother, and - most especially - a son. One-shot.


I hear the roaring of all the cicadas, and pretend like they're cheering me on as I walk into the ring of empty space, with a big wide circle of trees around it. The leaves on those trees are the greenest I've ever seen 'em, and it's only 'cause I've tried so many times that I can find the cicadas on the trees, too. Trunks isn't half as good at it as I am—only, when he finds 'em, he kills 'em. I'm not fast enough to stop him yet, but I will be. I promised the cicadas 'cause they cheer me on every evening when I come out here.

Usually I don't get to stay out in the woods all night, but Mom let me. Even my big brother Gohan was surprised, 'cause I guess Mom never ever let him come outside in the nighttime. He did it once, every night for a whole year, he said, when he was a bit littler than me, and Mom got super mad. But maybe that's 'cause he didn't ask nice first like I did.

So I'm out here for the evening, with the cicadas, but I'll be out here at night, too, with the stars. Trunks is sad that we have more stars here than he has at his house, so he was extra mad when he found out how I'm staying the night outside with them tonight. But I guess I usually go to bed about the same time they wake up.

I guess my mom never even let my big brother fight, either, but things have changed since then, Gohan says. He says it's because of my dad. I've never met him, I guess 'cause he's dead and that means he can't come visit 'cause he's stuck up in the sky. That's what Mom and Gohan told me. I wonder if it's like flypaper up there. I'm glad I don't know how to fly, if it is. I wonder how Gohan doesn't get stuck when he goes to school. Maybe he keeps low.

Or maybe my dad flew too high.

Oh yeah, don't ever ever _ever_ watch a fly try to crawl off of flypaper. It's real sad. After a while he stops moving. I asked Gohan once why, and he said it means the fly is dead.

I guess maybe then he's stuck up on the giant sky flypaper too, like my dad, and maybe all those cicadas Trunks finds.

...

Gohan says that things are way different now that our dad is dead. He said Mom never ever taught him martial arts, only he had to learn how to fight because these big meanies were going to come take over the world, like in the movies.

I found out a while ago that Mister Vegeta was one of those meanies, way back when. He's not that much of a meany anymore. He lets Trunks and me beat up on him sometimes, and tells us how we're not really trying and we're not good at fighting.

But we _are _good at fighting, we're just keeping it super secret right now. From Gohan, too. We can make our hair get tall and yellow, and when that happens we're a lot stronger. Mom saw it once and she called it "Super Saiyajin," but she sure wasn't happy about it. Maybe it's not allowed if you're not a grownup, 'cause only Trunks' dad ever does it. I guess Gohan can do it, too, only he never really does, so I think maybe it's not allowed. 'Cause otherwise, why wouldn't he do it? It makes you so fast. I guess it's a little scary. It was a little scary the first time, that's for sure. Maybe it's still scary to Gohan.

Trunks doesn't care if it's allowed or not, but he says that he wants to keep it secret so he can surprise his dad sometime, and then his dad will take him to the amusement park.

I guess on flypaper the roller coaster cars would get stuck and that big wheel would stop turning.

Anyway, I get to practice fighting every single day. Sometimes I fight Mom, and sometimes Trunks. Gohan thinks that Mom wants me to do martial arts 'cause she misses my dad, and he did martial arts too, just like her.

I guess I look a whole lot like my dad, at least that's what everybody who was friends with him says when they see me first. It's weird to think that somebody looked like me 'cause I look pretty different from most people. I think it's my hair 'cause it sticks up and nobody's does that but Gohan's and Trunks' dad's. But I guess it makes them happy, that I look like my dad, 'cause they smile when they see me.

...

Mom says that my dad used to have a tail like how I had a tail when I was real little. Gohan says that he had one, too, and it made him turn into a big giant monkey. I guess that's why they took his off, and mine too. But it sounds like it would be fun, to be a giant monkey. Nobody I've ever talked to besides Gohan could ever turn into a monkey. But Trunks said that his dad said that he and Trunks both had tails too. He said that his dad said that he had his tail for a really long time.

Trunks says that Mister Vegeta says that the tails are 'cause we're a thing called Saiyajin. Well, our dads are, so we kind of halfway are, or something. Gohan, too. That's how we can do the yellow hair thing, the Super Saiyajin thing.

Yep, and I guess Saiyajin aren't from Earth. My dad and Trunks' dad were space-aliens! Mom says my dad never knew he was a space-alien for a long time, but he had a big brother like I do, only my dad's big brother was a meany like how Mister Vegeta used to be. My dad's meany big brother showed up from space and told him he was a space-alien and beat him up.

Gohan would never ever beat me up. I'm glad he's not a meany.

...

When I go out into the big tree clearing to fight, and the cicadas cheer me on like an excited crowd, I sometimes pretend like it's a tournament. Mom says my dad used to fight in tournaments and he got money like that. I never knew people gave you money for fighting. Trunks said that his mom said that Mister Vegeta used to fight a lot more than he does now ('cause now he only trains and I guess it's 'cause there's nobody around he wants to fight). If he fought a lot, I wonder if that's how Trunks' family got so rich. But my dad fought too, and we don't have any fancy cakes and fancy dinners and fancy chairs like Trunks. Maybe there were special tournaments for meanies, back when his dad was a meany.

I told Mom once how I imagine I'm in a tournament when the cicadas are there in the tree ring where I like to go practice and think by myself. And I told her how I'll get stronger to stop Trunks from killing them, and how maybe since his dad used to be a meany I think it might have rubbed off on him a little, 'cause why else would he do that? And I told her how I don't like flypaper, and how I'll try really hard not to get stuck in the sky like my dad even if I learn how to fly someday. I told her the flies land on the flypaper on accident, so my dad wasn't just being mean to her getting stuck up there forever.

I told Mom how much I like fighting, and how I really really have fun fighting Trunks, even if he's kind of a meany sometimes. I told her how I'll do a tournament someday so we can have fancy cakes and the people can cheer at me like how the cicadas do. I'll bet Trunks wouldn't kill the people like he does the cicadas.

And I told Mom how I don't really get why I'm so different from everyone else, and how does it matter that I came halfway from a space-alien if I don't even act like one anyway? I told her how no one else likes the bugs and the lizards as much as me. I told her she should stop putting flypaper around the house because it's not fair to the flies, 'cause, sure they spend lots of time flying around, but they have to land _somewhere._

And then she told me how she loves me, and her eyes got all red and shiny. She said I could spend however long outside in the woods that I wanted, because my dad grew up in the woods and she guessed he turned out okay.

She told me how she really wishes I could meet my dad, and she said she wonders how it happened that I'm so much like him even though I don't know him. She told me maybe it was supposed to be that way. I think she might be right.


End file.
